SUV strikes 7-year-old in Potomac driveway

The Potomac home where a mom struck her 7-year-old child in the driveway, according to police. (WTOP/Kristi King)

WASHINGTON – A 7-year-old girl suffered life-threatening injuries after being struck by an SUV driven by her mother in Potomac, Md., Sunday night.

The girl appears to have been struck by the 2007 Mercedes-Benz GL450 at about 9:15 p.m. in her driveway in the 9900 block of Potomac Manors Drive, according to Montgomery County police.

Capt. Jim Daly, a police spokesman, says investigators are not sure which part of the vehicle struck the child, whom they believe may have been trying to go with her 41-year-old mother to the grocery store.

Daly says it appears the mother did not know the child had been struck, and she left the home.

“Our information is that the child, our 7-year-old victim, wanted to go with mom to the store,” Daly says. “If that is true, that gives us an explanation as to why she was out in the driveway.”

Police say a burglar alarm went off at a home in the same block, and a person going to that house told officers responding to the alarm call that he saw someone lying in the girl’s driveway and had called 911.

The officers then went to the girl’s home and gave her emergency first aid care, police say. The girl’s mother had returned home after realizing she had forgotten something, police say.

“By that time the mother had returned to the house and taken the child inside,” Daly says.

When fire and rescue personnel arrived, the girl was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital. She is in critical condition.

Police believe the mother was gone from the house for about 20 minutes, Daly says. The victim’s 16-year-old sister also was home at the time and apparently thought the 7-year-old was with the mother.

“When the 7-year-old was not there, the 16-year-old, we believe, assumed that she had gone with the mom,” Daly says. “The mom thought the kid was staying home with the 16-year-old.”

Daly says a police collision reconstruction team is looking into the incident and will make a determination, along with the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, as to whether any charges will be filed. Police believe the alarm call was not related to the girl being struck.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call police at 240-773-6620. Callers can remain anonymous.